Mignonette Bronze Lettuce - How do you start the seed?
 

Should you sow them like mustard and turnip seed or what?

I started some in seed trays by just sprinkling a bunch of seed in each cell. Now I don't know what to do.

Tim

Tim-you should be fine. I put seed in a container and cover it a teeny bit with some vermiculite usually, but sometimes I just throw it on the top of the potting soil. Some people cover it with something to keep the seed moist-I dont.

Thanks mdvpc.

I had no problems germinating. The seed tray cells look like chia pets :lol:

Should I thin them out? If so leave how many. I'm not sure if this lettuce grows like cabbage or more like mustard and turnips.


Tim

Because Bronze Mignonette is a heading butter lettuce and you want it to really form a nice head, I'd go the cabbage route and give it at least six inches all around. This variety forms a fairly compact head so I don't think you should need much more room than that.

Thanks Shelly.

Do you think i should thin out the cells to 2-3 plants and continue to grow them until it's time to transplant or should I remove all but one.


Tim

Tim-How many cells in your setup?

Arggggh, -dont whatever you do-use vermiculite with lettuce, it flavours the adult lettuce with a flavour that tastes like moth balls.-not all lettuce-but most of them will draw up the vermiculite flavour into the plants.- I know there will be some doubters-but its true I tell you.;)

Tim - how much longer will the plants be in the cells before you are ready to plant outside? If it won't be for a couple of weeks, I'd say you'll have to thin them to 2 or 3 per cell or you may end up stunting the whole batch. Lettuce seedlings do transplant easily, so you could try to tease some more of them out into other containers if you want to save more. But if yours are very crowded with the roots enter-twining, you may have trouble separating without snapping a few. I try to get them outside into natural sunshine as soon as I can, even if I have to bring them in at night. My lettuce under fluorescent lights tends to get pale and lanky and finicky to harden off.

I normally don't put more than 2 or 3 seeds per cell if I'm starting in the house, then separate and transplant the extras to other cells, leaving one plant per cell. Seeding outside in the garden, I sow pretty thickly, knowing that I will thin and transplant the extras after they get about an inch high. It's surprising how much root disturbance they can take when grown outside. They may look wilted, but will perk up in a few days as long as you keep them well watered.

Dee

Thanks folks. I will thin down to 2-3 per cell (12 cells) as Dee suggest. They have only spent 1 day under fluorescent lights. The weather has been nice the last few days. I may could / should have just direct sowed. I think I'll direct sow an area just to see how things go.

Tim